1. Field of Invention:
This invention relates to kitchenware, specifically to presses and graters used to shred and extract juice from garlic and the like.
2. Prior Art
Freshly crushed garlic is frequently required in recipies. Generally, the garlic to be crushed is placed into a cup or receiver. A ram or piston is forced into the cup, pressing the garlic through holes in a perforated grate or sieve.
Heretofore, presses used to crush garlic had corners and crevices which retained sticky, fiberous residue from the crushed garlic. In particular, the perforated grate through which the juice was pressed was difficult to clean because of its inherent intricacy and its location at the bottom of a cup. Also, its interior surface joined the interior of the cup at right angles, creating an inaccessible crevice. A solution to the problem of cleaning the grate was to make it detachable. However, detachable grates were retained by crevices in the cup which made the cup no less difficult to clean. Also the detached grates were difficult to hold for cleaning and thus were easy to lose.
Another solution was to provide combs, which, when inserted into the grate, served to dislodge residue. These added to the cost and complexity and were nearly as hard to clean as the grates themselves had been. Also, some of these combs were separate and hence easy to lose.
Another common problem was that the plunger did not slide sufficiently tightly into the cup. This allowed material to escape pressing and to make a mess. The reason for this imprecision was that the presses were made of plastic or metal that was cast or drawn in a die. In order for the parts to be removed from the die without undue friction, they were tapered in such a way that surface-to-surface contact between the parts and the die was eliminated as soon as the dies were parted. When the plunger and cup were assembled, their relationship resembled their former relationships to the dies, so that the taper prevented proper surface-to-surface seal until the mechanism reached the end of its travel.
Garlic and other condiments, such as ginger or parmesan cheese, sometimes require grating or pressing. Heretofore, garlic presses often had grates of cast plastic or aluminum and therefore lacked hard, sharp edges useful for grating these foods. Thin stainless steel grates, when supplied, were either interchangeable and not securely attached, or they had holes too fine for use in grating. Also, it was undesirable to use presses or graters used on garlic for other operations because the smell of the garlic, which was so difficult to remove, would thereby contaminate other foods.